Problems
1. As technology advances, less labor is required, and that reduces demand for labor, which reduces access to the medium of exchange.
2. Those who own or control the means of production, accumulate more and more wealth.
3. The remedy of compulsory charity (socialism, etc), penalizes the productive for the benefit of the non-productive.
4. The finite supply of money tokens can never keep proportionality with the ever changing marketplace of goods and services. Since the money tokens are the limiting factor, constrained by demands of usury, the marketplace convulses with booms and busts.
5. Government imposed barriers, restrictions, fees, taxes, import duties, and such, impair the production, trade and enjoyment, and thus impedes prosperity (while enriching those who manipulate the political system for private gain).
6. The lack of harmless means to acquire money, coupled with the rise in predation, has driven an increase in criminal activity. This, in turn, has generated a rise in the number of hired protectors, and other security measures (which are another dead weight on civilization).
7. The rise in recipients of charity, and the drop in producers, has throttled the generation of surplus usable goods and services.

Despite unmet needs, unemployed or underemployed labor, and unused production facilities (closed factories, businesses, etc), there is apparently no solution under the current paradigm.

As long as harmless actions to generate prosperity are impeded, prosperity will be equally hard to achieve.

What can we do to remove all impediments to prosperity?

What can we do to facilitate the production and trade of surplus?

What is stopping the productive people from working and producing?

Under current rules, it’s usually presumed to be money. The potential customers have no money to buy. The potential producers have no customers to pay them. In turn, they cannot hire labor nor buy materials, which would fuel trade and get the marketplace active.

Credit (usury) is no solution, either. Usury requires an infinite money supply, due to the exponential equation for compound interest. Bad.

However, giving money to everyone is no solution. To illustrate, imagine what would happen if tomorrow, everyone awoke to the knowledge that they had a balance of 22 billion billion quatloos – a sum of money that would make them “set for life.” If everyone decided they didn’t need to work anymore, civilization would collapse. That is “money madness” at work.

Remember, prosperity is based on production, not money. Money is useless if the marketplace is barren. Money madness is an acquired belief, based on pervasive propaganda and indoctrination. The masters of money madness and usury have been actively tricking humanity for thousands of years, skimming a portion of their labor and wealth. They are predators, not “capitalists.” And they need the willing cooperation of their victims to thrive.

WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

The question is : How can potential producers “sell” their labor and output in a system where the money tokens are corrupted by scarcity, government and usury?
Answer : Producers must make the “money” used to “buy” their labor / output.

In other words, the labor / output must be equitably matched with the medium of exchange to facilitate equitable trade.

HOW?

By whatever means is acceptable to the community and its marketplace. Private promissory notes. Private paper currency. Computer database. Credit bank. Handshake and agreement.

The basic idea is that whatever is used, must be capable of maintaining proportionality with the marketplace. In other words, the more labor is available, the more “notes” to hire that labor must be emitted and traded. The more products are available, the more “notes” to buy that production must be in circulation.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

A prospective entrepreneur trades his promissory notes denominated in his output, for his needed labor and materials. For example, if he is a restauranteur, he could emit notes denominated in meals. Once he opens for business, he discharges his notes with the output – meals. Since all his costs were paid with his notes, once he discharges all his notes, anything he earns after that is pure profit. And we hope that he multiplies the value of the raw materials and labor to create “more value.”

This also insures that any businessman has ready customers who hold his notes. No extra expense for advertising. No need to “fight for market share.”

Laborers who trade their notes for groceries, rent, or whatever, also benefit from the system. No need to ask for charity. And prospective employers don’t need to advertise for workers. All they have to do is acquire notes from laborers, and tender them.

It is understood that satisfaction in discharging the notes is paramount. So business and labor will be striving to do the best or have the best quality. There is no benefit to cheating the customer / employer. It will reflect badly on any future emissions of private notes. Which means virtue is more than its own reward. And the “richest” folks will be those who are most “creditworthy,” productive and creative.

This system can exist in parallel with the old fashioned “hard money” system. In fact, “hard money” may be useful for trade OUTSIDE of the community. Private mediums of exchange are dependent upon the trust in the issuer. A coupon for a “free burger” from a large chain is presumed negotiable in any particular restaurant. But a coupon for a “free burger” from Little Millie’s Munch House won’t trade far from that locale.

Ideally, such a system shifts the emphasis from “making money,” to building prosperity. As more and more shift to productive activities, and less are lured into predatory or parasitic activity, the whole society benefits. Even those who are in need, benefit. As more and more surplus is available, there is plenty for voluntary charity.

Restating: The Answer is for the government to get out of the way, cease meddling in the marketplace, and unleash prosperity. The Answer is for productive people and industries to issue their own medium of exchange for potential customers to acquire in trade. The Answer is for people to seek to be productive, and equitably trade their output, so that more can enjoy the surplus goods and services. For doing more with less so more can enjoy builds happiness. Whereas, doing less with more so few can enjoy brings misery.

Humani Ascendant

by Jeff Ganaposki

I could tell you of a wondrous future, where pain and suffering is minute in comparison to your present situation. And that your children’s children will live in a better world, a more prosperous world. But you would not believe me. Few bother to verify the future ‘casts anymore. The Perpetual Tranquility Broadcasting System is infallible, right? We don’t call them the “Powers That Be,” for nothing, right?

Living in the Ecological Paradise of Earth 128 is hard to explain. A planet, whose civilizations have shed the deadly parasitism of its most tenacious predators, is not easy to explain to those entrapped in the “old ways.”

Let me expand further. It is the year 128, or the 128th year after the Ascension of the Humani. The Humani was the term adopted by those who broke with the past, and instituted the New Marketplace. The Newmies, as they were dubbed by the slicksters and slime throwing segment, had embraced a startling philosophy. They deemed that they would no longer accept the indoctrination of money madness, nor tolerate usury or other scams to incrementally rob, cheat or otherwise injure another. They sought equitable trade for that which they produced, labored, or moved, and treated others with respect.

Under the New Marketplace, if an entrepreneur wished to “capitalize” a new endeavor, he merely issued a portfolio of private promissory notes, denominated in that which the enterprise could produce or perform, to be used to trade (purchase) for labor and materials. It was usually preceded by a public notice of the issuance, with the credentials and resumes of any particularly skilled individuals attached to the project, and the estimated discharge date for all notes. Some projects could begin discharging notes after only a short interval of time. Other projects predicted decades before extinguishing the notes. In any event, those promissory notes entered into the marketplace, as a vessel of future value, to facilitate trade until they were tendered and extinguished, in accord and satisfaction.

This had a profound effect on the nature of business and trade. Under the old money maddened and usury plagued rules, any enterprise spent into circulation a sum of money tokens to purchase labor and materials, which were then used to generate goods and services. The selling price had to be high enough to recover all costs (and taxes) -and- a profit margin, which was necessary to pay the usury embedded in the system. But since the money token supply was finite, and insufficient, and the usury required ever more tokens to be created, the marketplace was more like a battlefield, as competitors fought for market share and increased revenues with which to placate investors and creditors.

Due to contrary forces of government taxation and bureaucracy, protected usury, and a scarce money token system, the culture was skewed into “making money” (acquiring excess money tokens) but not necessarily making prosperity. In fact, it would appear that most were unaware of the concept.

Prosperity is the result of production, trade and enjoyment of surplus usable goods and services. Doing more with less so more can enjoy advances happiness. Doing less with more so few can enjoy produces misery. This is common knowledge, today, but not in the past.

As the “Newmies” grew in prosperity and in size, there were conflicts with the guardians of the “old Way.” But as with all obsolete and unproductive predations, they were no longer tolerated nor subsidized.

What then resulted from unleashing the productive capacity of over seven billions of people, was a fundamental transformation of civilization, local, regional, and national. No longer were people fighting over the finite resources of the planet. With clear and logical discussion of each problem, rational solutions were proffered and a consensus reached.

Though the planet had a finite surface area, it was realized that life existed in a volume. Thickening the life bearing volume of the planet eliminated the conflict between wildlife habitat versus human habitat and its adjunct, agricultural habitat. The Humani, with ever greater surpluses and resources of creative and industrious people, set about making their world anew.

Industrial sites were transformed into art, or relocated into areas that would not be indelibly scarred by their requirements, effluent and detritus. Some were moved underground, into mountains, onto floating islands, or within submerged complexes, whichever made the most sense. Cost was no object, because there was no money involved. Those who saw the benefits pledged their surpluses and made it happened thus.

You must realize the immensity of overhead that predation causes in civilization to comprehend the unleashing of potential of the Humani. Assume that the nonproductive “rich” – those who “skim” enough from the productive masses – are a mere 1% of society. They are also targeted by predators, which we will grant is ten times their number, or 10%. To defend against those predators, the “rich” hire protection – private security – personal guards – and pay bribes to government for “special” treatment. This adds at least 2 to 3% of people doing labor that is not generating useful goods and services (Protection from predation is a terrible waste of resources).

Recalculating, we have 4% doing non-useful activities to maintain their parasitic predatory status, with another 10% preying on them and others, for a total of 14%. But the biggest brake on civilization is the privileged recipient class and its attendant bureaucracy. This accounts for upwards of 40% or more of the useless activity – administration and overhead costs, too.

Subsidized nonproductivity is a strange result of the disconnect between the means to acquire money tokens (labor and usury), and the necessity to have the money tokens to trade for one’s necessities.

With mass production, technology, and automation incrementally reducing the amount of labor embodied in goods and services, “the system” keeps shedding jobs, while still generating sufficient goods and services. This has a negative feedback effect. In essence, while the embodied cost in labor keeps dropping, the dwindling number of laborers means many more cannot purchase that which they need. Since money madness rules the day, the purported solution to poverty is “give the poor some money.” And since money is scarce, it is taken, by government, from the productive and given to the non-productive, pitiful or not.

The repercussions of creating a class of recipients is that once they reach a majority or even a substantial bloc, they will influence the government officials to “Tax others and bribe them.” The net result is a society plagued by a government that penalizes the productive for the benefit of the non-productive. Such a civilization cannot long sustain and collapses into poverty. Which is ironic, since money madness is partly to blame for poverty.

Of course, poverty is not caused by lack of money. If that was true, poverty could be eliminated by granting everyone a bank balance of a billion billion quatloos – a substantial sum. Unfortunately, once everyone believes that they are “set for life,” with all the money tokens that they can ever spend, they cease to do those productive activities that generate the goods and services bought with those money tokens. In short, civilization collapses.

We realize that “seeking wealth,” is an illusion, and we no longer embrace such foolishness. Real prosperity and happiness is dependent upon the productive and creative people, who generate the useful goods and services we all enjoy.

Money is not prosperity. Nor does money make prosperity. Prosperity is not dependent upon the intrinsic value of the money token or whatever is used to carry value forward to a future transaction. The reality is that in all non-barter transactions (where the equitable exchange is completed for all parties), one party to the trade has what he wants NOW and the other party has a promise that he can tender LATER at a future transaction for that which he wants THEN. The only barrier to the acceptance of alternatives to government authorized money tokens is the TRUST in the issuing party. Those who build a reputation for honoring their notes are “Noteworthy.” Their word and their promises are ironclad, unbreakable, and dependable. Such individuals are the pillars of their community. Their word is their bond, and they are truly the “richest” men in town.

Large scale industries that have developed a reputation for excellence and dependability also benefit in the sense that they can “capitalize” their production with their promissory notes, and avoid the losses caused by usurers and other skims. Instead of paying dividends, denominated in money tokens, they issue private promissory notes denominated in that which they manufacture or can perform. The net result is zero pressure for increased market share and no destructive competition. The more you can produce, the more notes you can issue for customers to trade for your production.

Another benefit of private promissory notes – each holder of a note becomes a potential customer for the issuer. Businesses do not have to “fight” nor advertise for new customers, as their own notes create a ready pool of customers. And after redeeming all notes, any further transactions are pure profit (surplus), since the capitalization cost was embodied in the notes extinguished. And frankly, any enterprise should multiply the value of the embodied labor and materials into that which is of greater value or greater utility. Otherwise, why bother?

With intolerance of predators, and the end of their rule, Earth has changed. The net result of this transformation is a civilization that can fully utilize its varied skills and capacities. With each “labor saving” advance, more are free to do “other things.” As more and more people are “doing other things,” and creating the “money” with which to trade for them, the marketplace of goods and services is overflowing with the necessities and the luxuries once thought impossible or rationed to the favored few. No longer are people forced to compromise and budget their paltry sums of money tokens. No longer can producers generate junk and foist it on the public. Excellence is now the new standard. Quality is the new watchword. For if one will not produce to the best of his ability, the customer can and will go elsewhere, and the word swiftly spreads.

Among those “other things,” individuals, groups, and nations have embarked on ambitious projects that have improved the human condition and bestowed a better future for our children’s children.

To name but a few:

[] Globe spanning vacuum tube maglev transportation system. Hypersonic travel (4000 to 5000 mph), at minimal cost, linking the people of the world and their prodigious production.

[] Side effect of “thickened” life bearing volume has boosted the knowledge of augmented biological environments. This has been successfully applied to gigantic self sufficient orbiting space colonies. (Technically speaking, they are “surplus generating” space colonies, but that they can self support without resupply for upwards of 200 years is the important feature. And since they are dependent upon the Interplanetary Transport Network, “speedy delivery” is impractical.)

[] Orbiting space colonies. Habitats, vessels and hulls, created by robotic miners and fabricators, mined from asteroids, filled with resources collected from moons and comets, launched across the solar system, have been harvested by men, stocked and crewed, and now fill the heavens. At night, the twinkling of immense multitudes of vessels makes for a “Firefly sky.”

To the Humani life is the gift of pure being. Life is its own answer to the question : What is the meaning of life. Accept and embrace life and enjoy it, day by day. Live as well as possible and work toward perfection in all things. Expect nothing more from life nor make demands upon it or others. Destroy nothing without a purpose to build something better. Humble no one. Look for fault in no one. Leave unsullied and untouched all that is beautiful, if possible, make it even better. We all know what is needed to be done, when we all consider the impact upon the seventh generation to come … even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine – as the Iroquois once said.

It is 2117 AD, June 14. I am excited about the debate. The topic is about the quaint idea of anonymous money and if it should be brought back into widespread use.

The proponents argue that with scarce, precious metal coin money, there is a huge demand for it, that spurs enterprise. They dismiss the current private money token system as uninspiring and decadent. They cite the slowdown in engineering and innovation. They also argue that the scarcity of money is offset by the velocity of transactions.

Of course the opponents have generations of experience and examples to shoot down those arguments. In our private money token system, only productive people and businesses have the power to create the medium of exchange with which to trade for their output. In other words, there is always a proportional balance between the marketplace of goods and services, and the abstract tokens used to purchase them. As more laborers and producers enter the marketplace, so do the monies needed to buy them. Likewise, if the marketplace contracts, so does the supply of money tokens (i.e., private promissory notes, coupons, database entries, etc.) In a coin money system, the volume of money exists independent of the whole set of goods and services. This greatly impairs the ability of new laborers and enterprises to trade. Worse, the scarcity of money tokens tampers with equitable trade, forcing some to lose for no other reason than that the money is not available to facilitate trade.

There is a rumor that the proponents will raise the ugly word : usury, as another “benefit.” Few, in polite society, would dare express that in public, let alone argue for its acceptance. Anyone who can do exponential math knows that usury is unsustainable in a finite money token system. It requires an infinite supply of money to function over any long term. The past economic “booms” and “busts” were symptoms of that pernicious practice. The proponents argue that if the interest was denominated in private money, it would be fine. Of course, that isn’t really usury, but it is still suspect in the minds of most people. No sane person would now embrace the notion that it was acceptable to charge a fee, in money, for the use of money.

Without usury, there are no bankers engaged in selling “credit” for profit, and no pressure to acquire money tokens at all cost. Businesses no longer operated as if in a war for market share. Cooperation was superior to confrontation and competition. There was no pressure to find creditors or investors to back new ventures and enterprises. Frankly, it has fueled great prosperity – the production, trade and enjoyment of surplus usable goods and services.

Historians have noted, that with the eradication of anonymous money, the criminal and predatory elements no longer could operate. How can you sell stolen property when you lack the private note that establishes your ownership? Or how can you mug someone for their pocket money, when those unissued notes and product coupons can’t be used to buy illicit substances or fund criminal activities? There is no need to “launder money” if there is no money to launder.

And without “money madness” to spur people to “make money” instead of be prodigious producers, there are no “get rich quick” scams, schemes, or predatory practices. Everyone knows that money or wealth, by itself, is worthless, if there is nothing to buy or trade with it.

The simple fact that if everyone was issued a billion billion money credits, more than they could ever spend, civilization would collapse. Who would do the work, produce, transport and provide the goods and services ? Everyone would be “set for life” – and promptly die in the chaos that follows.

People are not that stupid anymore. They know that the real treasure is found in the creative, productive, innovative and prosperity generating people – the foundation of happiness – and the prerequisite of any charitable giving.

It is a mathematical fact that usury is unsustainable in a finite money token system. The exponential equation used to calculate compound interest requires an infinite money supply to function. If you’ve been wondering where all that “new printed paper currency” is going – it’s being used to prop up the immense aggregate debt and investment obligation “out there.” The megabankers and speculators are fighting to grab as much as possible lest they default. They care not about the consequences of hyperinflation.

At some point, the volume of money tokens will be so far out of balance with the underlying collateral that collapse will be inevitable, default or not.

Even when collapse is staring them in the face, those money maddened and plagued by usurers will think they’re “winning” – paying off creditors or accumulating great wealth. But at some point, it will be obvious that there is no corresponding relationship between the vast ocean of paper and the collapsing economy.

Those with paper empires will fall, investors ruined, and debtors dispossessed. Only those who don’t “play the game” will be unscathed. (No usury, no debt, no obligation to repay a creditor)

Speculation as to the ways and means of the collapse are rampant. It may be sudden or it may be a gradual decline. But the new winners will have vocations that produce useable goods and services and have a good chance at getting through the “transition.” Those who prepared themselves, who accumulated supplies and stored food, will be in the best shape to deal with the “dislocation” and breakdown in the economy. When the money token system fails, socialist benefits cease, trade stops, and the shelves will go bare.

Then chaos will erupt.
[Use your imagination]

In the aftermath, we shall see who will possess that which is the foundation of all wealth – the land – and whether or not the survivors will let “them” keep land acquired by stealth and skullduggery, versus those who had acquired it by trade in lawful money and improved it. That will tell the tale as to the final chapter in the united States of America. Did the republican form survive or die? Did the thieves and pirates vanquish the innocent producers?

It is 2117, May 24. I am excited about the news. The St. Google’s Society and Infrastructure won the bid for expanding the underground city at the Grand Canyon. It was a tough competition. Candidates offered their visionary plans, their pledges of private promissory notes for labor and material, and their past track record. There were a few who were favored to win, especially the Brigham Young Memorial Society and Engineering. There was a strong showing from the St. Mary’s Society and Technology. . . no doubt from their recent stunning Cathedral City and Industrial Park. In the end the plebiscite favored the St. Google’s Society and Infrastructure. They had the most fail safe and disaster resistant engineering specification.

Ever since the infrastructure was donated to any private charity or society that could build and maintain it, the landscape has been transforming in ways unimaginable by our forefathers. And it favors those who are most productive, innovative, creative and frugal, doing the most with the least for the benefit of the many. Plus, it is a great ego boost to see your group’s handiwork as a proud monument to everyone’s effort.

There’s the added benefit for group members, too. Though the infrastructure system is generally free of charge, any fee based “special services” are available to members in good standing. And why not? They or their donations helped build and maintain it. Why not enjoy the perks? And it helps build membership ranks, too.

Which reminds me, the “Sons of Norway” society are having a farmstead raising and all are invited to participate. They have some great cooks – and great looking girls to dance with at the celebrations. The SoN also have some fine cybertechnologists that I’d like to get some discount credit to trade with.

It is 2117, May 3. Dad is going on a business trip. He’ll be taking the vacuum train, and will probably leave late to get the cheap night fare. When traveling at 8000 kph / 5000 mph, you don’t get much time to snooze, and with 2 G acceleration / deceleration profiles, it’s not easy to relax. Most business men catch the morning and afternoon shuttles – which makes them the most crowded and highest cost. Not for Dad, though. Dad will squeeze credits till they cry out in pain.

Hypersonic travel is pretty simple, once you build a large, vacuum tube. The mag-lev train can accelerate to great velocities. Without air, there’s no problem with sonic booms. But the radius of curvature and the high velocity limit turns. So the tubes and the network are constrained to minimize sharp turns. And to prevent minor dislocations from causing accidents, the circumferential clearance space is about1.5 meters.

I read about the Halbach arrays and passive failsafe lifting mechanism that prevents a catastrophic loss of magnetic repulsion. The engineering problem of constructing massive Halbach arrays was solved by …

Oh, drat! I have to go. I have to do some share work at the Ring cooperative kitchen. It’s not much – about 12 hours per week. I will be doing a three hour meal cycle : set up, cook, serve, break down, and clean. They are a conservative operation, running a 4 hour service. The spare hour between, is often used for after meal entertainment as there are always some amateurs looking for captive audiences.

It’s nice to hear them singing, when slogging away at the last bit of cleaning. Oh, I am also being cross trained in cookery, and last week I learned about making a roue. It’s fun. Who would have thought that a bit of fat and flour could be so flexible?

Governments instituted to secure rights, by prosecuting criminal acts after the fact, are derelict in their duty when they seek to impose prohibitions on liberty, on the chance of preventing crime. Though one can evaluate performance for the former, one can never prove or disprove the efficacy of an abrogation of a liberty in crime prevention.

When a government stoops to sweeping regulation, it is declaring its incompetence in prosecuting crime. Worse, by regulation, it puts the burden on the innocent people that should have been born by the criminals or the servant government.

The end result is a nation of people who are no longer free, but constrained to actions permitted by the government and its bureaucracy. In other words, that which is not permitted, nor mandatory, is forbidden. That IS the death of liberty.

Back when money madness was important, it was not uncommon for folks to dream of “getting rich.” It did appear that having a surplus of money tokens, or large account balances, was exchangeable for food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities and luxuries. But that is an illusion, based on inequitable trade and predation.

Unfortunately, there is no connection between money tokens and prosperity. Scarce money tokens can never keep up with the economy. That’s why only a few can enjoy “being rich.”

However, most if not all folks can enjoy prosperity. Prosperity is not limited by the sum of money tokens or their distribution. Prosperity is dependent upon the productivity of a people, their ability to transport and trade that production, and enjoy it. Prosperity, by definition, is the production, trade, and enjoyment of surplus usable goods and services. Doing more with less so more can enjoy is the key to finding happiness. Doing less with more, so few can enjoy is the recipe for misery.

A prosperous people generate such a prodigious surplus that there is plenty to devote to other activities beyond mundane survival. They can sponsor art, science, research, and more. There is enough to aid those who are ill, infirm or otherwise incapable of production.

A creative people are not bored, nor incessantly seeking amusement to distract themselves. In some respects, the next step in civilization awaits their rise. For when civilization is supported on the foundations of prosperity instead of greed, avarice, and predation, there is hope for the future of mankind.